The Value Of The Gift

We exchanged gifts with Marie and Rolland on Christmas Eve afternoon when we finished with lunch. I didn’t even do dishes, surprise, surprise.

True to form, Marie made me a beautiful afghan. It was lovely with pink raised roses on a bed of white and blue. It will be a heirloom for me.
I bought, the optimum word is bought, her a beautiful turquoise velour outfit that goes beautifully with her white hair. Fran got her some jewelry. While she was unwrapping and inspecting her gifts she was very quiet. I was watching from across the room and went to her. I told her that one of her friends just loved the soft velour outfits and had three of them. She told me she had a closet full of clothes. (sigh)
Her last gift was thick and misshapen.. She felt of it and ripped the paper away, and said, “Now THAT I like!"
That gift cost a whole three dollars and in return I got a million dollar smile. One just never knows.

Maries Stories Are Fun

Marie was at our house for Christmas Eve lunch this year. We changed our Christmas lunch for several different reasons, but she was fine with it.
While we were eating I asked her to tell us stories of Christmas while she was a child. Oh, anyone that knows Marie, she was more than willing to tell stories.
One story was of Marie as a very small child going hunting with her father for the Christmas turkey. It was very cold, of course, because they lived in Massachusetts . The got two very big turkeys for dinner. They had a very large family therefore, it took two big birds.
I asked Marie if they had homemade gifts at Christmas time and she said that they did if they even had money for them.
As she got older and had children she had her children, boys also, knit caps and mittens for children that had none. She told the numbers and it was astronomical, but I forgot to write it down. She and the children worked and worked to have as many caps and mittens as they could to have gifts for the children.
She told many stories that day, but she veered off the Christmas stories. There will be more stories, more days
By the way she made this lovely Christmas Afghan herself.
I have no idea who has it now. One day it was just gone. The things that she made were most often given to her guests. Friends as well as family. Her family seldom ever left without something that she had made.

The Aubin Family

 Today I went to Marie’s house to visit. She was so excited she had gotten a picture of her whole family in the mail. The youngest child was Lucy; she was three months old. The youngest brother, Charlie was the blonde little boy sitting on the ground. Marie said this picture was taken in 1931. She was so excited I got tickled at her. She said, “Make sure you put this on the internet.”  And of course, I told her that I would.
I am going to name the children from left to right: Hector, Tony Bob, Lucy, Marie, Teresa, George, Jean, Joe, Pauline, and like I said, Charlie sitting on the ground.
I think they were a good looking crew.

She Forgot My Birthday

I was thinking this morning that it has been awhile since I posted something about Marie, Fran's mother. I have said she is amazing, I have said that her memory is also amazing. She is ninety-four. She knows her grandchildren's names and birthdays. She is also a great grandmother. She is going to be expecting a great great grandchild I think in January. See, I say 'I think" I know if I ran down to her house she would tell me exactly when Liz was due.

Well, Marie crocheted an afghan and two hoodies for the new baby. Here is a picture of Lizan opening up the afghan. I believe she has a rosary in her hand.

I do have something a little amusing to tell you. She was so upset a few weeks ago. She told Fran that she had forgotten my birthday. Can you imagine?

Fran Loves His Mom

The very first time I met Fran, he talked about his mom a lot. After I met her, I could understand why. She is ninety-four years old, takes care of her house the best she can, She cooks for her son that lives with her and herself, and does the laundry. Her first love is her flowers and gardening in the spring and summer. This fall she was out there digging up the bulbs to plant for next spring.
She does a lot of knitting and crocheting and loves to tell stories of her past.

Marie was musically inclined when she was young and still can sing. Her eyesight prevents her from playing the piano and organ otherwise she would be doing that too.
The day before her ninety fourth birthday (our wedding) she danced with Fran. The band played a waltz for them to dance too and played her the Happy Birthday Song. She loved it. You can see a picture of Marie and Fran's dad dancing on the June Post of this year. It looked like they were having fun.
I found a picture taken long ago of Marie and Raymond (Fran’s father) and I see the resemblance of Fran and his dad.

Marie Has Wheels

For the first time in her life Marie is driving a vehicle. She has wanted an electric wheelchair for years and something always prevented her from getting one. Finally Fran and I took the bull by the horns and got her an appointment to be evaluated and bingo! She got a custom made wheelchair built just for her. She even got to choose the color. It is bright blue. She drives it with a joy stick.
Marie may have to buy new furniture, because she does do a little bumping into things, but when she does she laughs. Marie is so happy!

Marie's 94th Birthday

We had another fun day yesterday. Marie's son, Roger, from Texas was here to help celebrate Marie's birthday. We picked up Marie and took her to a Chinese Buffet. She said that she had never been to one before She thought that a buffet was a good idea for fast service. She enjoyed people watching especially people that were eating with chop sticks. She said if she tried that she would have food all over the place.
When we got back to Stockton we took her to a green house and picked out plants for outside on her deck and a house plant called a fuzzy jew. I had never seen one; it really was fuzzy.
Of course, before we could leave she gave us a loaf of zucchini bread and a loaf of homemade white bread. She may be ninety four, but she still knows her way around the kitchen!